Third Tim Lucky
by thisisnotreal123
Summary: My thoughts on the Ruth and Jay story line now that they're finally together again
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own anything. If I did, like most people, I wouldn't have made Ruth and Jay's relationship be on and off all the time.**

Jay woke and turned to the sleeping figure next to him. Ruth looked so peaceful when she was asleep – as if all her troubles melted away when she entered the land of dreams. Unfortunately, he had to get up as he was on the early shift. Ruth wouldn't have to be in work until lunchtime so Jay got out of bed as quietly as possible. He changed his morning cup of coffee for orange juice so the noise wouldn't stir Ruth. He also skipped having a shower at home and went in early to work to have one at the hospital instead so that he wouldn't wake Ruth up. After all, he knew that below her exterior of career focused superwoman, all Ruth really liked was a lazy pyjama day, especially if it was with Jay. He left his keys on the side after double checking he'd remembered everything – he really didn't want to have to wake Ruth up just to let him back in the flat. He also did a quick clean of the kitchen then put the ingredients (bar the milk) and utensils required for her favourite breakfast (porridge with honey and sugar) on the side so she didn't have to worry about finding them in his very disorganised cupboards. Lastly, he wrote a note saying Ruth was allowed to have breakfast (he couldn't believe she still felt she had to ask to have food from his kitchen) before leaving the house as quietly as possible to get the early bus to work.

Ruth couldn't remember having as peaceful sleep in a long time – probably, she realised with some embarrassment, since the last time she woke up in this bed. It took her a moment to recollect what happened the night before but when she did remember, a smile lit up her face. She also realised Jay must have already left for work, which meant she must have had a good lie-in. Looking at the clock confirmed this, which meant her plan to nip back to her place to pick up some clean clothes and use her own toiletries to get washed with so she didn't have to do the walk of shame in to work had been shot to pieces. Fortunately, Jay didn't really like overly masculine toiletries as the smell apparently reminded him of the smell of teenage Jay's room so it wouldn't be too obvious she slept over at Jay's to their colleagues. Jay had apparently spent time trying to give her the perfect morning as he'd changed the towels over to his special fluffy white towels which he normally only uses on his birthday week (the most special week of the year according to Jay). However, Ruth had a minor freak-out when she realised she didn't have a change of underwear. Fortunately, after a raid on Jay's underwear drawer, she found a clean pair of boxers which she hoped wouldn't be too obvious under her scrubs. When Ruth went in to the kitchen, Ruth nearly burst out laughing on seeing how Jay had taken out all the ingredients and utensils needed for her favourite breakfast and lined them up on the newly cleaned sides for her. He must have remembered even the tiniest detail about her as he taken out the spotty bowl and matching mug for her which she'd once said were her favourites the first time they were together all those years ago.

Despite having wished for their reunion since the moment they last broke up, Ruth couldn't help but feel that she was dreaming as she walked in to the ED that lunchtime. At least, she thought she was dreaming until she saw the smile on Jay's face when he saw her walk in to the department which confirmed her memories of last night really happened. She'd put Jay's keys in to the pocket of her scrubs so she could give them back to him when the opportunity arose. However, until then, she found herself fiddling with the set of keys whenever she thought of Jay and her memories of last night. Barely an hour in to her shift, Jay had found an excuse to come over to talk to her. Subtlety, she took the keys out of her pocket and gave them to Jay. After all, being the subject of ED gossip was the last thing she wanted. It was all going so well until Jay decided to make _that_ comment about her choice of underwear. She felt like the blush on her cheeks was like a beacon to everyone in the department, saying "look, Ruth and Jay are back together". However, maybe it was because their colleagues were still a little apprehensive of Ruth after her breakdown in the department a few months ago but not one person made a comment about her and Jay to her all day. It was some sort of miracle for Holby ED.


	2. Chapter 2

_**One Year Later**_

Ruth walked in to the ED with Jay, having given up trying to conceal her relationship with him long ago. They'd moved in to their first home together at the weekend and had finishing unpacking the last of the boxes the previous night. It had taken ages to find a place because Ruth loved Victorian properties which had been converted in to flats whereas Jay preferred new builds with reliable water and electrical systems. Eventually, the estate agent had found them the perfect compromise – a new build which had been built in a faithful recreation of a Victorian house to fit in with the neighbours. Ruth couldn't believe how lucky she was – for the first time in her life, everything seemed to be going right.

Although both Ruth and Jay were supposed to be working in CDU that day, a major incident at a building site meant that Ruth was called to the scene as there were several very critical casualties who Dixie wasn't even sure would make it into the ED, let alone survive. Despite Ruth putting her ambition to be a surgeon on the back burner since realising how much she'd have to sacrifice for it (i.e. Jay and her friends in the ED), she did relish the opportunity to go to the real frontline of dealing with casualties. She went to the scene with Dixie and Jeff who briefed her on the incident. Scaffolding had been put up very shoddily and when the builders went up to start work, the whole thing had collapsed. At the moment, at least five were severely injured, seven were badly injured and two were dead. All the injured had crush injuries or broken bones from the scaffolding so a lot of morphine was required as well as Holby's finest fire-fighters.

Everything was going great until one of the casualties' wives turned up in a hysterical state. Her husband was not as badly injured as many of his colleagues so he was still trapped within the scaffolding. Ignoring the pleas of the emergency services personnel as well as many of them trying to give chase, she went straight in to the pile of scaffolding. Her husband was trapped in a hollow with scaffolding pipes and planks enclosing the hole. Of course, she tried to move them herself and succeeded only in rolling one of the pipes down the pile of scaffolding towards where Ruth, Dixie and Jeff were treating one of the very seriously injured casualties. It happened so quickly that they didn't hear the warnings to move before the pipe hit them.

The next thing Ruth knew, she was being strapped to a spinal board and being blue lighted to the hospital.

"What have we got?" Dylan said as Ruth was rushed in to ED. He'd been given the task of leading her treatment, given he was the only doctor with very little emotional ties to treating a colleague.

"Ruth!" Jay ran to her side and refused to leave, even when he was told he wasn't allowed to help with her treatment as he was way too emotionally involved with her.

"It hurts – my back really hurts." Ruth said quietly to Dylan trying to hide the pain she was in from Jay.

"We need full bloods and urine tests, X-Ray, MRI and ultrasound ASAP people!" Dylan said to the nearest not-Jay nurse.

Tess took the blood test immediately but it seemed an age before Ruth was taken for her X-Ray. Jay nearly lost it when Jeff was taken for his when he'd been brought in 20 minutes after Ruth and only had a broken wrist from where he'd tried to stop the pipe hitting Dixie. Dylan had disappeared after a woman with an interesting rash on her leg had been brought in so Jordan took the brunt of Jay's anger.

"Can't you see how much pain Ruth's in? Why hasn't she gone up for her X-Ray? Jeff has and he arrived half an hour ago!"

"Jay, let me have a look at her notes first – I can't tell you anything until then. You know that." As he was flicking through them, a HCA came in with the results of Ruth's test. Jordan looked shocked but tried to hide it from Jay. However, Jay was no fool and didn't miss a beat.

"Come on Jordan, please, just tell us what is it?" Jay knew he was begging but he didn't care – this was Ruth who was the patient, not some random person off the street.

"Did you know Ruth's pregnant?"

"What? No, she can't be – she would have told me."

"Jay, they've checked and double checked. I reckon she's at least into her second trimester from her hormone levels."

"I'm not … I'm not pregnant," Ruth mumbled, trying to get through the fog in her brain caused by the pain medication she'd been given.

"Ruth, you are –we did the tests twice. We still need to do an ultrasound on your abdomen to check for internal damage – we could show the foetus then too if you like."

"I'm telling you, I'd know if I was pregnant. There's no baby in there," Ruth said, indicating towards her abdomen as best as she could.

She was proved wrong, however, when the scan proved she was expecting a baby and was 26 weeks pregnant. The baby had not curled up in to the normal foetal position which was why Ruth did not have a baby bump but was basically standing in her womb. Both Ruth and Jay were in shock before Ruth started crying.

"Ruth, babe, it'll be ok. You'll be a great mum, I promise," Jay tried his best to soothe her.

"No it won't be okay. For goodness sake, I've been taking bipolar medication which specifically say don't take while pregnant and I haven't taken any prenatal vitamins so my folic acid levels will be way too low , meaning the baby will probably have spina bifida so all in all, I've completely wrecked the baby's life before it's even been born."

"Ruth, listen to me. They can pick up spina bifida in the ultrasound and it was clear – everything was clear so you haven't ruined our baby's life AT ALL. If you'd like, we can talk to Charlie about your medication though."

"Ok – I want to sleep now." Her pain medication had been making her very drowsy and Jay was surprised Ruth hadn't fallen asleep earlier.

Jay just stayed by her side gently rubbing her hand to soothe Ruth in to a deep sleep, still in shock at the news he was going to be dad in just over three months. Ruth would have to stay overnight and despite all of Jay's pleading and begging, he was not allowed to stay with her. It broke his heart to go home without her, to sit down for tea without her to cook for or chat to or to sleep in their bed without her to cuddle as he fell asleep. For the first time in a long time, if ever, Jay cried himself to sleep.

Jay couldn't get to the hospital early enough the next day. Even getting there at 8 in the morning, Ruth had already beaten him to annoying the doctors and nurses in to letting her go home early so she was already packing up her stuff as best she could with her painfully bruised back when Jay arrived. He had to use all his persuasive charms to convince her to let him pack up her possessions. When they got home, Jay even managed to persuade her to go into almost complete bed rest for the first of the two weeks she'd been given off on the proviso that he joined her in staying in bed as much as possible.

Surprisingly, Ruth actually enjoyed being on bed rest – probably because Jay spent most of the two weeks by her side. Despite that, Ruth couldn't wait to get back to work – especially as she knew she'd have to go on months of maternity leave soon. Because of the baby's breech position, she'd been advised to have a C-Section so there was no chance of Ruth rushing back to work after the baby was born. It also meant that Ruth was being monitored extra closely which gave Jay extra scans to add to the baby book he'd created.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Three Weeks Later**_

Fortunately, Ruth's recovery from her back injury was textbook and she was allowed back to work (albeit on light duties due to her pregnancy) after the two weeks leave was up. Of course, all her colleagues had found out about the impending arrival and less than five minutes in to her first shift back for Ruth to find out that Mac and Noel were organising bets on all baby related matters. Ruth couldn't bring herself to stop them – she blamed the pregnancy hormones for her change in attitude despite the fact she still wasn't suffering with the pregnancy symptoms.

Unfortunately, all of her colleagues knowing about her pregnancy also meant it was impossible for Ruth to try to go on full duties, no matter how hard she begged. Being on light duties was pretty dull and Ruth started to get a craving for coffee despite the fact she hadn't been allowed one for three weeks now. Sneaking down to the coffee machine, she tried to look inconspicuous as she pressed the number she knew off by heart for a coffee with milk, no sugar. Just as she picked it up a figure knocked it out of her hands, making the coffee spill all over the floor.

"Jay, what did you do that for? I was only going to have the one!" Ruth said, without turning round. She thought it was such a Jay thing to do.

"Sorry Ruthie but I had to get your attention somehow." The voice definitely wasn't Jay's – it was Jonathan's. His tone was joking but there was the usual undercurrent of menace beneath it.

"Jonathan, what are you doing here?"

"I need your help. My friend, she's hurt but she won't come in to hospital. Ruthie, she's hurt really bad! Please come and help her!"

"Jonathan, it's the middle of my shift – I can't just disappear. Sorry but you're going to have to call an ambulance like everyone else for her."

"No, you're going to help her." His tone went from desperate to angry as he grabbed her by the arm and steered her out of the department and in to the back of a beat up wreck of a car waiting in the hospital car park.

Ten minutes later, Ruth and Jonathan arrived at a houseboat on the Holby canal. It turned out Jonathan was telling the truth. Inside, a 17 year old girl, obviously heavily addicted to drugs even at her young age, with a large cut to her leg and lying barely conscious on the kitchen floor.

"Jonathan, I have no equipment. I can't do anything. She needs to go to hospital."

"You're lying, I know you are. I've seen those hospital shows. Docs can do all sorts even when they don't have any equipment so you're going to make her better."

"Jonathan, those shows aren't real. In real life, doctors need clean bandages and drugs to treat patients."

"No, you're lying. All you need is some water and a tea towel. Look, I've got them ready for you."

Ruth knew she wasn't going to get anywhere with Jonathan so decided to do her best to clean and dress the wound with what Jonathan gave her, although she tried to use the dirty tea towel as little as possible. It turned out it wasn't enough.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Home. I've dressed the wound as best I could and now I'm going."

"No. You're going to stay here until I know she's better."

"Jonathan, it will take weeks, if not months, for her leg to completely heal and that's with proper medical attention – not some water and a tea towel."

"What do you need then? I'll go and get it for you."

"Jonathan, no. I won't have you robbing some chemists for supplies. Think, Jonathan, you'll go back to prison for a long time all because you won't let her go to hospital. Look, if you take her to the ED, I can make sure the Police won't get involved. Please just let me go.

Jonathan pondered the idea for a moment but then shook his head.

"Sorry, Ruth but I told you she's not going to hospital."

"You're being ridiculous. Don't you think people will wonder where I am?"

"No, Ruth, I don't think they will. There's so many doctors at that hospital I don't think they'll miss one … and don't pretend you have some sort of social life and that your friends will miss you. I'll go get some supplies for you if that's what you need but don't think about leaving. I'll find you then you'll regret it." Ruth hated that tone, the tone he'd used to threaten her with a beating when they were little – usually followed by a beating no matter if she did what he wanted or not.

However, Jonathan had underestimated his sister. Five minutes after he'd left, Ruth had managed to break down the door within seconds of her first attempt at it and was running down the canal side shouting for help when a ripple of pain shot through her abdomen which made her stop in her tracks. It went away as quickly as it came so Ruth convinced herself it was just a stitch. Just as she was about to start running up the canal side shouting for help again, she saw a familiar figure ahead.

"Dr Kier! …"

"Dr Winters isn't it? What on earth are you doing down here? You'd better not be stalking me!" Dylan replied before Ruth could explain further.

"No, no. Dr Kier, there's a woman in that houseboat by the boathouse with a gash to her leg in urgent need of medical attention. Please, you need to help her." Ruth replied breathlessly, still out of breath from running up the canal side.

"And you didn't think to ring 999?"

"I left my phone at the hospital – long story – but you need to get to her quickly before …" Another jolt of pain shot across her abdomen, making it impossible for Ruth to continue with her explanation.

"Dr Winters, have you had this sort of pain before?"

"It's just a stitch. Had one just before I saw you too, completely normal."

"Ruth, you know that's not the case. Are you absolutely sure you've only had one other contraction?"

"Contractions? I'm not in labour, I'm only 30 weeks gone – it's way too soon. It's just a stitch; you need to go and get the girl and take her to hospital."

Dylan sighed. "Fine, I'll go and get the girl but you are going to the hospital too," he said as he turned and started walking back to his car. Ruth quickly followed suit.

"Whatever, we just need to get the girl before my brother gets back."

"Your brother? What on earth has he got to do with this?" Dylan stopped in his tracks, a metre from the car.

"I think she's his girlfriend or something but he was the one who kidnapped me from the hospital and brought me here."

"Kidnapped? By your brother? No wonder you're so odd."

"Pot, kettle, black," Ruth muttered to herself before saying curtly "can we just hurry up and get to her before he gets back?"

"Yes, yes. Get in – it'll be quicker to drive up there." Dylan unlocked the car door and jumped in.

Barely a minute, they arrived back at the houseboat.

"This boat here?" Dylan asked.

"Yes."

Dylan grabbed his kit (he was supposed to be on duty with Swift Medics tonight) from the boot before following Ruth into the boat.

"Hello, can you tell me your name?" Dylan asked the girl.

"Kit."

"Kit, how did you get this injury?"

Before she could answer, the door slammed shut – Jonathan had returned.

"Ruthie, I told you not to go anywhere." His tone was sickly sweet, which Ruth knew meant trouble. Sure enough, ignoring Dylan, Jonathan grabbed Ruth by the throat and shoved to the opposite wall. Dylan did a good job at hiding his shock at this.

"Mr Winters, I'm one of Ruth's colleagues. We're just trying to help your friend."

"Yeah, well, no one's leaving until she's properly better."

"She needs to get to hospital now – as does your sister."

"My sister? I barely touched her, did I, Ruthie?" Ruth knew better than to disagree with Jonathan.

"I wasn't talking about that. I meant she's in labour."

"Ruthie in labour? Give me a break. I'm not that stupid. She isn't pregnant – she ain't got a bump," he said pointing at her still flat stomach. "Who would go near enough to her to knock her up anyway? Not you I hope." Jonathan was laughing now.

"No, Dr Winters and I are just colleagues as I said earlier when I also said we need to take your friend to hospital now." Dylan was trying to distract Jonathan as he saw Ruth was having another contraction, making their need to get hospital even more urgent.

"Jonathan, how about Dr Kier dresses the wound here with his kit then we take her to the hospital? We can say she just fell down the canal side and cut her leg on a dumped sign or something?" Ruth was realising maybe Dylan had been right so knew she needed to persuade her brother to let them go as soon as possible.

"How do I know you won't just say I did it? I'll go back to jail – I ain't going back, Ruthie, not ever!"

"Kit hasn't told us any different to my version of events so that's what Dr Kier and I will have to say at the hospital."

"Ok but if I find out you've dobbed on me Ruth, you know what will happen."

Dylan got to work on cleaning and dressing the wound, which was slowed down by Jonathan wanting to know what Dylan was doing. Ruth helped as best as she could but she was getting contractions every two minutes now. Both Dylan and Ruth knew there wasn't a lot of time left. Dylan managed to clean and dress the wound in double quick time and even managed to convince Jonathan to help carry Kit to the car by playing to Jonathan's sexist mind. Just as they managed to get Kit into the car, Ruth collapsed in a heap.

"Baby's coming now!" She managed saying whilst panting for breath.

"Ruthie, you can stop with the baby nonsense now – I'm letting you take her to hospital. Come on get up." Ruth just grimaced in pain as another contraction hit.

Dylan ran over to Ruth and was shocked to see that the baby's feet were already nearly out.

"Ruth, I need you listen to me, alright?" Ruth nodded. "Ok, right, push, push, push – stop!" Dylan said as the torso came out. As it was a breech birth, the baby needed to be turned when the shoulders were about to be delivered so they didn't get stuck. "One more push, Ruth." Sure enough, one push later, Ruth gave birth to a baby boy who promptly cried the place down. Dylan clamped and cut the umbilical cord quickly and handed the baby over to Ruth.

"Hello, little one." Ruth didn't think she'd ever been so happy or so scared as she was holding her son for the first time. Jonathan and Dylan managed to get Ruth and her son into the back of the car alongside Kit before opening the passenger door for Jonathan.

"I'm not going to hospital."

"Your sister's just had a baby – don't you want to go with her?"

"No. I'm not going anywhere near that place." Jonathan then ran off into the fields by the canal. Dylan knew the two women needed him to take them to hospital more than he wanted to give chase to Jonathan to knock some sense in to him.

Dylan didn't think he'd ever driven so carefully in his life – after all, he had a new born 10 week premature baby in the back. Driving in to the Holby hospital car park, Dylan parked right by the hospital doors.

"You two," he shouted towards Jeff and Dixie, "I've got two female patients and a male premature new born here in need of urgent medical attention."

"Whoa, hi Ruth, hi little one – you could have mentioned the new born baby was Dr Winters'," Dixie said to Dylan.

"Put Kit on the stretcher – I'll wait."

"Ok, Jeff, you wait with Ruth whilst Dr Kier and I take this woman in and grab a wheelchair for Ruth."

"So, have you thought of a name for him yet?" Jeff asked Ruth after Dixie and Dylan had gone in to the department with Kit.

"No, I … it's something Jay and I need to decide together, you know?"

"Just an idea but Jeff Fauldren has a certain ring to it, don't you think?" Ruth just laughed in response.

Dixie, Jay and Dylan returned from the department with another stretcher for Ruth as well as an incubator for the baby.

"Why do you want me to help?" Jay was puzzled at why Dixie had demanded he come outside to help with the patient.

"Jay!" Ruth called out as soon as she saw him.

"Ruth, what on … the baby! … Our baby!" Jay was in shock as he realised he'd become a dad.

"Your son is very small; he needs to go up to the SCBU to be checked over. However, you can have a quick cuddle with him before he goes in to the incubator." Dixie explained.

"He's so little," Jay said as Ruth handed their baby to him.

"But chatty like his daddy!" Ruth joked.

"Right, Ruth, time to get out of this rust bucket and on to the trolley." Jay put the baby in to the incubator then picked Ruth up out of the back of the jeep and put her on to the stretcher.

Dixie, Jeff and Jay pushed the stretcher (with Jay by her head so he could whisper words of comfort to her when she was pushed through the department – he knew how embarrassed she would feel). Meanwhile Dylan took the incubator up to the SCBU.

After an examination by Zoe, it was decided that Ruth needed to stay in overnight for observation. The SCBU staff said due to his early birth, the baby would have to stay in for a week at least due to his premature birth which was definitely not in a hospital.

Afterwards, Jay came in to the cubicle with a photo of their son he'd obviously snuck up to SCBU to take.

"He still doesn't have a name – the others are getting annoyed. They've already all lost out on the due date and birth weight bets." Jay said jokingly.

"Well, we agreed you would choose his first name and I would choose his middle name so you can't just blame me." Ruth smiled.

"Ok, well my nana has always begged me to use her dad's name if I ever had a son – something about him being a hero in World War One. He was called Saheed and as she always said, it means bliss, which is what this," Jay indicated around them, "is."

"That's so sweet. I was thinking – and don't get angry – but because he delivered our son, I think he should have the middle name Dylan."

Jay wasn't angry at all but did laugh. "Don't you think that will be a bit of a mouthful – how about Keogh instead as a middle name?" Ruth nodded as Jay went over to the reception desk to tell Noel and Big Mac their decision and she picked up the pen lying on the side, writing on the bottom of the picture "Saheed Keogh Fauldren".

**Uni's about to start so I won't have time to continue this story. However, feel free to yourselves instead. **


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